Motorola announces new Polaroid Insta-Share Printer Moto Mod

Alex Todd

4 months ago

Motorola’s Moto Mod modular accessory family, designed for its Moto Z and Z2-branded handsets, grows by one today as the company teams up with famed photography brand Polaroid to release the new Insta-Share Printer.

In truth, the printer mod has already broken cover a number of times, initially teased as an experimental prototype by Motorola itself back at this year’s Mobile World Congress, again more recently alongside the, now launched, ‘smart speaker with Amazon Alexa’, and once more just the other week when the official trailer for the mod appeared briefly on YouTube before being pulled down.

As with the rest of the Moto Mod family, the Polaroid Insta-Share Printer attaches magnetically to the back of a compatible handset and ties into a dedicated app that lets you choose from pictures within your phone’s native gallery or from apps such as Facebook, Instagram and Google Photos.

When it comes to actually printing your snaps, the Insta-Share Printer uses zinc inkless (a.k.a. ZINK) paper technology, similarly to standalone pocket photo printers from the likes of LG and HP’s Sprocket family. The printer holds 10 prints at a time whilst an integrated battery promises to offer enough charge for around 20 prints. The printer can then be recharged whilst attached to your Moto Z phone or separately via its own USB-C port. There’s also a bank of four white LEDs on its inside face with a button to let you check charge when it’s not connected to your phone.

The printer supports standardised ZINK photo paper packs which are available online from a number of different brands, however, the companion app recommends Polaroid’s own ZINK paper refill packs, which come in packs of both 20 and 30 costing $9.99 and $14.99 respectively (we’ll update with UK pricing when it becomes available).

Motorola says the Polaroid Insta-Share Printer mod will be available in various markets across Europe as of January 2018. In the UK it’s now been confirmed that it’ll range on both Motorola.co.uk and John Lewis from early January for £119.